Hellraiser Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
5. It's A Refreshingly Standalone Reboot
Reboots are generally something that many moviegoers are wary of, and that's especially true in the horror genre, considering how many of them have fallen far short of their predecessors' success.
Thankfully Hellraiser gets more right than it does wrong, and one of its smarter calls was to fashion itself as a largely closed-off, standalone reboot, rather than yet another clumsy, nostalgia-baiting "legacy sequel."
No, there's not a single mention of the Cotton family here, nor any explicit references to the existence of Doug Bradley's Pinhead.
Sure, we get the impression that this universe is much larger than the one presented here, but the focus is largely on telling a new, self-contained story than constantly looking over its shoulder or setting up sequels.
While it's certainly likely that a follow-up will happen if Hellraiser is a ratings hit, there's basically nothing here that teases a sequel, ensuring that it stands just fine on its own if it does end up being a one-off.
In this age of relentlessly cynical retoolings and soulless universe-building, isn't that a little refreshing?